New You Challenge - Transformation Spotlight - Ron De La

New You Challenge - Transformation Spotlight

How Ron De La Torre Won at Life

He had a plan: bariatric surgery. At 5 foot 11 and 300 lb., Ron De La Torre said he was at the end of his rope.

“I had been overweight for 30 or 40 years. It’s all I ever knew,” said De La Torre, now 56. “I had the conversation about bariatric surgery with my wife. I couldn’t even walk up the stairs without stopping, and my grandkids wanted to play with papa, but I couldn’t.” Surgery seemed like the best option to help him lose weight and become healthier, he explained. But then he saw an advertisement for a New You fitness program at CrossFit 116 in Haslet, Texas. “I decided to try that first, and if CrossFit didn’t work, then I’d have surgery. In my mind, surgery was still the backup plan,” De La Torre said.

In October 2016, he made an appointment at CrossFit 116 with coach Codi Morris. “It was a Saturday. I drove up to the gym, and it looked pretty hardcore. I remember thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing here? I can’t do this.’ So I drove away,” he said.

When he got home, his wife pushed him to go back. “So I did, and I met Codi, and he said to me, ‘You are exactly who this program is for.’ And I was like, ‘Really? Because I’m not seeing 300-pound fat people running around right now.’ He laughed and said, ‘Trust me on this.’” Morris, too, remembers meeting De La Torre for the first time. “I could see the look of pure terror as he pulls up (to the gym). You could tell that he wished I hadn’t seen him so he could drive off. That didn’t stop him. He drove off anyway,” he said.

When De La Torre returned, Morris pulled him into his office for a private chat. “The more we talked, the more comfortable he became,” Morris said. At the time, De La Torre was so unhealthy his doctors feared for his life. His Type 2 diabetes was getting worse, as measured by an A1C test, which pegged his blood-glucose level at 14 percent. A measurement of 5.7 percent is considered normal, while anything above 6.5 percent indicates Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes wasn’t his only health concern. His blood pressure, cholesterol and resting heart rate were also high, De La Torre explained. “My blood pressure was 150 over 90 on a good day, and I don’t remember what my cholesterol number was, but my doctor told me it was at stroke level. We had a conversation about doing surgery where they would scrape plaque out of my veins. And my resting heart rate was at 135 (beats per minute),” he said.

Driven to be able to play with his grandchildren and avoid bariatric surgery, De La Torre made the decision to trust Morris’ expertise and truly commit himself to getting his health on track, he explained.

His first day at CrossFit 116 left him skeptical, he admitted. “I felt like I was dying, and Codi said that I should expect to be really sore tomorrow. Tomorrow? I was worried about walking to my car at the end of the workout,” he said, laughing at the memory. When De La Torre arrived at work, he called the office and asked a colleague to bring down his laptop because he didn’t think he could get out of his car. “I worked from my car for the next three hours,” De La Torre said. “When I got home, I told my wife, ‘I think I made a colossal mistake.’”

During those first weeks at CrossFit 116, De La Torre couldn’t even lift an empty 45-lb. bar properly. He couldn’t do a single push-up, let alone a pull-up. Even a burpee was next to impossible, he added. “I remember telling Codi, ‘I can’t do that. My body just doesn’t move like that.’” For his body to be able to move more effectively, he would need to change his diet, Morris emphasized. “Codi told me it would be 75 percent diet and 25 percent working out, so I knew I had to do both the training and the diet,” De La Torre said. He immediately adopted a Paleo-style diet, limiting his foods mostly to various meats, vegetables and some fruit. He eliminated gluten, starch and sugar completely, a stark contrast from his former diet of processed foods, frequent loaves of bread and a 12-pack of Diet Coke nearly every day.

In the first six weeks of CrossFit, De La Torre quickly lost 30 lb.and felt like a new person, he said.

After six months, he was down 50 lb. His doctor was astounded, he said. “We did a physical, and all my numbers looked really good, but he wasn’t ready to take me off my meds yet in case I fell off the wagon,” De La Torre recalled. “He told me we’d talk about taking me off meds if I could keep it up for another six months.” De La Torre did more than that. By September 2017—just 11 months into CrossFit—his weight was down to 188 lb. His A1C measurement was a healthy 4.9 percent, his blood pressure was a normal 110/68, and his resting heart rate measured 70 beats per minute. Once with a 54-inch waist, De La Torre fit into 34-inch pants. His doctor cleared him to stop taking the various medications he had been on for nearly 20 years, including prescriptions for cholesterol, diabetes and blood pressure. “He told me, ‘You’re controlling it through diet and exercise. You don’t need it anymore,’ and then he joked and said, ‘Well, you don’t really need me anymore either, do yau?’” Getting off medication now saves him US$500 a month.

De La Torre’s results in the gym are equally impressive. At almost 57 years of age, he can deadlift 305 lb. and front-squat 155 lb. He can do push-ups and burpees and is getting closer to his first pull-up. “I didn’t even used to be able to do a sit-up. Now I can actually see my feet when I do them,” he said. His 2018 goals: pull-ups, toes-to-bars and handstand push-ups.

Commitment is the key to De La Torre’s success, Morris said. “He has been all in since day one. He has done everything we have asked of him with enthusiasm. This is how we (have to) fight back against disease, illness, obesity in this country. It’s by example first, and Ron is leading the charge.”

As excited as De La Torre is about the thought of pulling his chin over the bar in the near future, he’s even more excited about how much better his life is today than it was a year ago. Recently, he traveled to Houston, Texas, to help his in-laws save the contents of their home, which was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. “A year ago, I wouldn’t have even gone. I wouldn’t have been very helpful. But there I was hanging with the young bucks and pulling out heavy refrigerators from the house and up in the attic pulling out furniture. I was there for 12 hours working. I got to be part of the solution,” he said. Day-to-day life is just more enjoyable now, he added. “I can walk into stores and buy clothes now. I was never able to do that before. And I can play with my grandkids instead of watching them play. “CrossFit is definitely not just exercise for me. It has changed my entire life.” De La Torre added: “I don’t just come home and eat all night anymore. I actually have a life now.”